After a winter break with training in a warmer climate, many people had hoped for more exciting battles in the second half of the cyclocross season. A few minutes into the Scheldecross in Antwerp, everybody realized that was just an illusion. To use Tina Turner’s words, Mathieu van der Poel was “simply the best.”
Van der Poel launched like a rocket, pushing hard at two different points in the sand at the beach of Sint-Anneke, which was enough for van der Poel to have only Toon Aerts by his side. In this phase, Aerts didn’t let go which made van der Poel stop pushing. It allowed World Champion Van Aert and Michael Vanthourenhout to close the gap.
At the end of the second lap van der Poel attacked again. World Champion Van Aert tried to keep up but soon realized that van der Poel was just too strong once again. Van der Poel took victory number 14 of the season. Van Aert beat Aerts in the sprint for second place, more than a minute after van der Poel crossed the finish line!
Aerts stays leader in the DVV-trophy but only has a 57 second bonus on van der Poel. After his 4 minutes 12 seconds loss on the Koppenberg, van der Poel is back in the game.
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